


Ambushed

by gemspegasus



Category: Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: Gen, OW, h/c
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-07
Updated: 2010-06-07
Packaged: 2017-10-09 23:35:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/92803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gemspegasus/pseuds/gemspegasus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ezra and Nathan are ambushed on the way back to Four Corners.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ambushed

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: The Seven don't belong to me. I'm only saddling them up for a 'ride' or 7. I will return them to MGM, Mirisch,Trilogy and John Watson when we're done. No copyright infringement intended. This was written for fun only. No profit made. Thank you to Kristen for naming Ezra's horse.  
> A/N's: Slight reference to the S2 episode "Penance."

Nathan Jackson's horse, Chester let out a long whinny and moved closer to the handsome chestnut gelding trotting his way.

Ezra smiled and tipped his hat, "Afternoon, Mr. Jackson. "How is the lovely Rain? I trust there is no lingering after effects from her ordeal with Mr. Poplar?"

Nathan answered his friend and asked Ezra how his trip to Prosperity Creek had been.

Ezra's gold tooth flashed as he replied, "very fortuitous."

Suddenly both Chaucer and Chester's ears pricked up and swiveled slightly. Ezra and Nathan drew their weapons and urged their horses to a shelter of boulders nearby.

Gunfire erupted, ricocheting off of the large rocks which Chester and Chaucer had just ridden by.

Ezra wheeled Chaucer around, maneuvering his mount behind a big boulder and fired upon a miscreant charging at him.

The man toppled backwards off his horse and lay motionless on the ground.

Nathan, now behind another huge rock hurtled one of his knives through the air and the blade whizzed by Ezra's ear to bury itself in the chest of a man sneaking up behind Ezra.

Cautiously rising up from his crouch, Ezra tipped his hat to Nathan in thanks.

Nathan smiled at Ezra. His smile turning into a frown as another gun shot rang out and Ezra fell forward. Nathan shouted, "Ezra!" and ran two steps toward the fallen gambler when he felt a bullet hit him high in the shoulder. The healer crumpled to the ground.

Ignoring the painful, burning sensation radiating from his left side, Ezra crawled forward, all the while calling out to Nathan. To his dismay, Nathan did not answer him. Pain finally claimed the Southerner as he blacked out a few inches away from the healer. A now lax hand outstretched toward Nathan.

Nathan slowly opened his eyes and hissed as his shoulder throbbed fiercely when he tried to move closer to Ezra. He released a sigh of relief when he heard Ezra moan in pain.

Chaucer and Chester immediately surrounded their fallen riders and flattened their ears back as two unshaven, scruffy looking men came down from the crest above them and headed in their direction. Neither Chaucer nor Chester liked the smell of either of these two men.

When the Chestnut and the Bay snorted at them, the younger would-be-thief stopped in his tracks and pulled on his older cousin's arm.

"What?" The older man snarled.

"They ain't gonna let us get close to them," answered the younger one.

"Boy that fancy Dan is carryin' a load of cash that he' done won in last nite's poker game. And we're gonna get it one way or the other. No pair of horses is gonna stop us. We'll just shoot them." Roy said and reached for his gun.

Jake cleared his throat and quietly replied, "We're outta bullets, Roy." We used 'em all in the ambush and we got no more"

Loud curses turned the air blue as Roy cussed and cuffed Jake hard on the head. Then the older man began to rant at Jake for losing their money in the saloon instead of using it for supplies.

While the miscreants approached the horses and argued amongst themselves, Ezra regained consciousness and slowly scuttled up right next to Nathan. A bullet had nicked the left side of his torso but he had no thought for his own injury.

Nathan had been shot in the upper back and his wound was still bleeding.

Ezra hurriedly tore store strips off of his once pristine white shirt and pressed them gently but firmly against Nathan's wound until it stopped bleeding. As he applied pressure to the injury he entreated softly, "Mr. Ja…Nathan can you hear me?"

Nathan groaned Ezra's name and tried to roll over.

Ezra stopped him with a bloodied hand on the small of Nathan's back and harshly whispered, "Don't move! You were shot in the shoulder. Is there an exit wound?"

"No," Nathan answered.

Per Nathan's instructions, Ezra treated and bandaged Nathan's wound the best he could.

Then Nathan asked Ezra, "How bad are you hit?"

With his thoughts racing because of Nathan's reply to his question, Ezra blandly responded, "A bullet grazed my left side it's not too bad. I'm fine." He avoided looking at the trail of blood he had left behind him while he hastily bound a strip of his shirt against the ragged edges of his wound.

Nathan grunted skeptically but didn't push it because he couldn't roll over, he was fighting nausea and his eyesight was so blurry there was no way he could check Ezra's injury.

Ezra asked him if he could call Chester closer to them.

Nathan painfully clucked twice as Ezra whistled softly for Chaucer.

The obedient geldings shifted nearer to their riders and shielded them behind their powerful bodies.

At that moment, Nathan turned his head to the side and expelled the contents of his stomach.

Ezra heard the horses snort warningly while he offered Nathan a sip of water from one of the canteens.

After Nathan rasped out, "Can't have any. Ezra, get my gun out of its holster and the knives out of my sheath, you might need them as well as the gun," he passed out.

Uncharacteristically clumsy fingers were thrust underneath Nathan's nose. Ezra let out a relieved sigh when he felt several flutters of breath against his fingertips. With his left arm balanced on the edge of the bedroll pillowing Nathan's head. Ezra unsheathed Nathan's knives carefully. He didn't want to dislodge the bandage along Nathan's back which was held in place by the strap of Nathan's knife sheath. Sliding his gun and then Nathan's gun out of their holsters had Ezra gritting his teeth to hold off the pain.

The weapons were laid out in easy reach.

After a moment's thought, Ezra rose sluggishly to his feet and dizzily held onto Chaucer's saddle until everything stopped spinning. A minute later he pulled his rifle out of its scabbard. Gingerly stepping up beside Chester, Ezra drew Nathan's rifle from its scabbard as well. He heard one of the miscreants cussing loudly and spied the fuzzy figures of two men fighting a few yards away. Ezra staggered back to where the weapons were and slumped to the ground. Dropping the rifles by the other guns, he picked up his handgun. Afterwards, Ezra checked that Nathan was still breathing.

He was.

Ezra bowed his head and thought this would be an ideal time for Divine intervention, which Josiah was always talking about.

Suddenly three hard voices and four cocked guns had Ezra raising his head.

"Drop your guns," Vin ordered Roy and Jake.

"Real easy like," added Buck.

"I wouldn't if I were you," JD said as Roy foolishly took a step forward while dropping his gun.

Roy froze again.

Buck motioned with his non gun hand for JD to go find Ezra and Nathan.

JD blanched when he came upon Ezra and Nathan. Quickly holstering his guns, JD crouched next to Ezra who hurriedly told him, "Bullet still inside of Nathan."

Then Ezra slipped into unconsciousness.

Buck rushed to JD's side when he heard JD's panicked shout. He paled at JD's words.

Vin tied Roy and Jake to a tree when Buck called out to him.

Epilogue

A week later, Nathan grimaced slightly as Nettie changed the dressing on his shoulder.

Ezra complained good-naturedly as Josiah plumped the pillows supporting his back.

After Vin, Buck and JD had found Ezra and Nathan they had taken their two injured friends to Nettie Well's homestead because after Nathan, she had the most experience in dealing with serious injuries and she was the closest.

She was the one that took the bullet out of Nathan's back while JD rode back to Four Corners for Chris and Josiah.

Vin and Casey helped Nettie the best they could and Buck tended to Ezra and his wound.

Throughout the week, both Ezra and Nathan fought fever and infection but their will and determination plus the stubbornness of five other men and two women won out.

Ezra and Nathan recovered but they were still not yet at full strength.

Also during the week, specifically, the day after the ambush, Chris almost shot Roy and Jake when JD and Buck brought them to the jail

Roy and Jake were awaiting Judge Travis who was coming to town the following week.

Today, Chris and the others walked into Nettie's house and asked her how her patients were doing.

Nettie replied that they were both mending well and added that they would be ready to return to town in a few days, Ezra and Nathan beamed toothy smiles at her.

Chris and the others also grinned.

 

The End.


End file.
